Theater demands commitment and organization, time and determination to work through inevitable challenges. But it rewards you with pleasure and joy, and teaches people how to be together, how to collaborate toward a common goal.
Theater brings pleasure and joy. It teaches people to work together.
Theater requires commitment, organization, time, and willingness to overcome difficulties.
- To participate, even the most restless young people must accept clear rules. They learn to manage their energy, to wait their turn to enter the stage or speak, to pay attention to the words and gestures of others.
- When a community or Fede e Luce group decides to "put on a play," as the young people say, the first step is to gather everyone and decide what to perform, why that text rather than another, and how to perform it.
- Usually the choice falls on a fairy tale or traditional story. The plot can be simplified, but enriched with songs, pantomime, secondary characters, and small scenes suited to our actors.
- Then comes the question of casting, and suddenly things get serious. Some want to do everything; others, shy or afraid, laugh it off and say they can't do anything. It seems important to me both to satisfy—as much as possible—the wishes of young people who want a certain role, and to sense which role will truly suit them and, above all, make even the shyest or most struggling person feel comfortable.
- Ideally, parts should be assigned with full satisfaction and confidence from all the actors. That's why we often end up adding unexpected characters or doubling the number of main roles.
- Of course, a "part" can be as small as a few important lines, a gesture, a song sung with others, or movements performed with help from another actor. But even for those who speak without particular difficulty, we've learned it's pointless to insist they memorize the script if it worries them. Once the young person enters the role, they naturally invent dialogue that fits the action. Mirella taught me this. When she played Tom Thumb's mother, she never said the same lines twice, but each time she managed to express tenderness, alarm, and concern.
Scenery and Lights
- Lights have genuine magic. I remember the San Paolo group's staging of a Gospel passage. Different moments were lit in different colors—reds, purples, yellows—and they conveyed sorrow, abandonment, friendship, and betrayal more powerfully than words ever could. The audience seemed enchanted by those suggestive lights.
- When we staged "Francis of Assisi," Marco, who played the lead, put on the habit and moved us all. He found, with such simplicity and dignity, exactly the right gestures and bearing. Carlo, who always feared forgetting his lines, entered as a brilliant golden sun in "The Selfish Giant" and forgot only his fear. He played his role with joy and confidence. This reminds us that costumes—designed together with the actors—are essential to theater.
The Parents
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- Parents matter too—not just as audience, but as actors. When they perform alongside their children, they give them confidence. You're all friends working together on something that matters. And children watching their parents be "serious and important," playing funny or fantastic characters, find nothing more entertaining.
- If you have very little time to prepare, or if the performance is meant as play, you can use a pre-recorded cassette with dialogue and music—as was done at the Spring Festival in Rome. The actors move and mime to the recording. This way, young people use their pantomime and expression skills, and they have fun without worry.
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These are modest notes, observations made "in the field." Anyone who has worked in theater could certainly add many more valuable suggestions. For me, they are important memories that connect me to my friends in the Fede e Luce group at S. Silvia, and they bring back experiences we lived together with peace and joy.
- Maria Teresa Mazzarotto, 1988